Remaining Native

Rez Film Club is presented by the Native Circle Advisory Board at Circle Cinema and proudly sponsored by the Flint Family Foundation and Cherokee Film.

Filmmaker Paige Bethmann will be present for a post film Q&A session, joined by the President of the National Indian Boarding School Healing Coalition, Chief Ben Barnes of the Shawnee Tribe. Q&A moderated by Dr. Valarie Blue Bird Jernigan, Director of the Center for Indigenous Health Research and Policy and a Professor of Medicine and Rural Health at the Center for Health Sciences at Oklahoma State University.

1hr 27m | Documentary | English | Tickets FREE + FREE Popcorn for atendees

Synopsis: A coming-of-age documentary told from the perspective of Ku Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American runner, struggling to navigate his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete as the memory of his great grandfather's escape from an Indian boarding school begins to connect past, present, and future.

Paige Bethmann (Director & Producer) is a Haudenosaunee woman and first-time feature filmmaker based in Reno, Nevada. Over the last 10 years, Paige has worked in non-fiction television for various digital and broadcast networks such as ESPN, PBS, Vox Media, Youtube Originals, USA, and NBC. Her directorial debut REMAINING NATIVE premiered at SXSW winning a special Jury Award and Audience Award. In 2024, Paige was named by DOC NYC’s 40 under 40 list of filmmakers to watch. She is a graduate of Ithaca College, with a bachelor’s degree in Film, Television, and Radio from the Park School of Communications. 

Director's Statement:  My grandmother once told me that Creator didn't give us our stories in books. Stories are spoken. Words fall off the tongue and onto the land to seep into the dirt. These stories root down and grow back sprouting as living beings to be cared for and harvested as memories to be passed down again. I think about this relationship in "Remaining Native." The legacy of Indian boarding schools is ugly. It has thorns. Vines that are suffocating and often spread thickly over the lives of many Native American families. Including my own. As I remember my grandmother’s teachings I now ask myself “What story do I want to be abundant?” “What story do I want the next caretaker to harvest and share?” The story of Frank Quinn, escaping an Indian boarding school 3 times as an 8-year-old boy is profound but the legacy he leaves behind spans generations through memories, love, and a deep connection to culture. This story flourishes and through time has synthesized into Ku, his great-grandson, as he stretches towards the sun, preparing to bloom.